Why You Need a NetSuite Implementation Guide Who Understands Finance and Accounting

Why Is Financial Experience Important for an Implementation Guide?

Unfortunately, most implementation partners lack staff with strong business and finance backgrounds. This lack of expertise can cause many ERP issues, from general ledgers that don’t map to the correct accounts to inventory valuations plagued by variances. The situation is a stress headache waiting to happen.

“One of the worst ERP failures I ever saw was with a client who had used a different implementation firm,” SuiteDynamics Principal Finance Consultant Grace Martin laughs. “And their opening balance entry was put in backward. You’re never going to balance if the opening balance entry is backward.” 

Before working with our company, Martin earned a computer science and math degree from the University of Kentucky and spent five years as a senior systems analyst in Germany. Then, she transitioned to finance and spent over 20 years helping businesses stay in the black. This ERP powerhouse is one of the reasons why SuiteDynamics has become one of NetSuite’s fastest-growing implementation partners. 

“Most of my prior experience has been with manufacturing firms,” Martin explains. “And so, I understand everything from absorption, standard costing, and inventory control to consumables. I understand the manufacturing process inside out and have a certification in Continuous Improvement—the study of how to do everything more efficiently and effectively. Continuous Improvement applies to business process just as much as the organization of your shop floor.” 

In fact, Martin and SuiteDynamics CEO Jake Kleiner have roughly 50 years of combined experience in computer programming and accounting. They work with other financial experts on staff to customize NetSuite systems that work as clients expect. So, when company reps talk about their functional requirements, our team speaks that language. As a result, we understand clients’ needs and can discern how to achieve their goals. 

Unfortunately, Martin says, that ability is unique for a NetSuite implementation firm. 

What Happens When Financial Expertise Isn’t Involved in an Implementation?

Many implementation companies can’t create specific financial systems. Instead, they simply customize NetSuite modules based on their limited knowledge of the platform. They only know one way of building systems, so that’s what they build. 

“If a person doesn’t understand accounting concepts or business concepts, then there’s no way that they can optimize the system to do what the client needs it to do,” Martin says. “So, usually, what those sorts of implementers do is they try to pigeonhole clients into one way of doing everything.” 

Implementation firms also often don’t understand financial reporting, so they have limited knowledge of the data structures needed to run businesses effectively. 

These data structures are one of NetSuite’s most significant benefits. For example, the ERP system allows users to keep a simple chart of accounts but add financial segments for other fields needed in financial reporting. Then, it pulls that data together, presenting it as a matrix instead of a two-dimensional report.

Consequently, NetSuite users can quickly answer questions requiring information from various sources, such as “What’s our net profitability by country, by customer, or by product line?”

Or, they should have that ability, anyway. 

“You can answer those sorts of questions—if you structure the data correctly,” Martin says. But, of course, that doesn’t always happen." 

According to Martin, other ERP partners are now asking SuiteDynamics to help their clients—since financial know-how is virtually nonexistent in the NetSuite implementation guide network.In fact, we subcontract for several partners to ensure their clients’ financial modules are deployed correctly. Those companies are recognizing how crucial well-rounded experience truly is. 

“If you need an implementation partner, you’re basically looking for someone who has technical programming knowledge and also accounting knowledge,” Martin says. “Few people go to school for both of those things.”